Musings of a twenty something and (hopefully) some lessons learnt

Happy (Belated) Ugadi!

Ugadi is the new year in Andhra Pradesh,Telangana and Karnataka (I still cannot get my head around the fact that AP is now two states). True to my mixed heritage, I celebrated Ugadi in my own little way (and a day early, because it is gudi padwa in Maharashtra).

I made bevu bella (Kannada) or bellam pachadi (Telugu) which is essentially a juice (of sorts) that we drink to ring in the new year.

The tradition of bevu bella (Kannada: neem, jaggery) is to have a balance to all things that form part of life: happiness, sadness, troubled times. This philosophy has made the most sense to me since I was a kid, and therefore Ugadi holds some special place for me.

This year I made bevu bella and Mavinakayi Chitranna (Kannada: raw mango lemon rice)

Method:
1. Heat water and soak the tamarind for about 10 minutes. Remove the tamarind.
2. In the tamarind water, add the neem leaves (cut up), flowers, crushed jaggery and the grated raw mango.
3. let it soak for a while before you have it.

In a pan, heat oil for about a minute. Once heated, add the red chillis (in most markets in Bombay they’re known as Andhra chillis) and fry for about 20 seconds. Add the chana dal, urad dal, jeera, green chilli, peanuts, curry leaves, turmeric-frying each of them for 20 seconds each. Once done add salt and mix. Add the cooked rice and mix. Turn off the stove. Add lemon juice and mix, Garnish with coriander.